Thursday, December 15, 2016

Austrian Light Infantry and Jagers

I finished painting this unit on December 2nd, and it took place in the Austerlitz game. I just hadn't had a chance to do a post on it until now. While the Austruian army probably lead Europe in Light Infantry tactics during the 7 Years War, thanks to their Grenz troops, the attempt to convert them into something closer to line infantry resulted in a notable decline in their effectiveness at skirmishing and raiding activities. In 1798, 15 battalions of Light Infantry were raised from several existing units of Freikorps. Their existence was short lived, being disbanded in 1801. Their uniforms are rather interesting, so I will present the basic information on these units.

Austrian Light Infantry Battalions, 1798-1801

Jackets were essentially the same cut as for the line infantry, but were "pike grey" (Hechtgrau)in color. This is a blue grey, with the emphasis more on the blue than the grey. The top bar of the table of facings is as close as I could come for the hue. There is an excellent presentation of what the various Austrian facing colors probably actually looked like here. The units recruited in Italy had "German" pants with gaiters, while the rest had the tight pants yellow braid and short ankle boots of Hungarian units. In either case, the pants were Pike Grey as well. The facing colors appeared on the collar, cuffs, turnbacks, and the piping of the shoulder straps. It seems that the Italian units also had round cuffs and the rest (mostly) pointed cuffs in the Hungarian style. The helmet was worn as for the line infantry of the time, but with a brass "F-II" cipher on the front instead of the usual brass plate.

Bn #

Title

Recruitment

Facings

Buttons

Legwear

1

Strozzi

Galicia

Crab Red

Yellow

Hungarian

2

Carl Johan

Italy

Crab Red

White

German

3

Am Ende

Italy

Brick Red

Yellow

German

4

Bach

Italy

Brick Red

White

German

5

Radivojevich

slavonia

Orange-Yellow

Yellow

Hungarian

6

Trautenburg

Hungary

Orange-Yellow

Yellow

Hungarian

7

Otto

Hungary

Steel Green

Yellow

Hungarian

8

Wurmser

Hungary

Sulphur Yellow

Yellow

Hungarian

9

Greth

Hungary

Carmine

Yellow

Hungarian

10

Siegenfeld

Croatia

Dark Blue

White

Hungarian

11

Carneville

Italy

Dark Blue

Yellow

German

12

Rubenityz

Galicia

Steel Green

White

Hungarian

13

Munkacsy

Hungary

Sulphur Yellow

Yellow

Hungarian

14

Rohan

Italy

Black

White

German

15

Mihalovic

Slavonia

Black

Yellow

Hungarian

Austrian Light Infantry, 1798, by Tranquillo Mollo.

All in all an interesting uniform that requires pretty much just a paint conversion of Austrian and Hungarian Line infantry figures wearing the helmet. I think my friend Jon needs a unit of them in his early Austrian Army! :-)

When the Light Infantry were disbanded in 1801, their place was taken by 3 battalions of Jagers. Originally, these were part of IR 46, but were reassigned as IR 64, and named the Tiroler-Jager Regiment. When the Tyrol was lost in the treaty of Pressburg following Austerlitz, it was restyled the Jager-Regiment Chasteler.

The initial uniform was similar to that of the earlier light infantry, with hechtgrau jackets and pants, grass green facings, and all black leather work, topped by a helmet with a green crest.

The familiar Korsehut as seen above was evidently not adopted until as late as 1808, when the Jagers were reorganized in to nine, 2-company "divisions". Each "division was to be expanded to a six company battalion in wartime, with war being anticipated in 1809. In 1813, the Jagers were increased to 12 battalions

I will be discussing the 1808 uniform in another post; this small unit of 12 Old Glory 28mm figures has a sister unit of 18 yet to come. I will note that I opted for the more traditional medium grey color these rifle armed Jagers are usually depicted in, rather than the bluish, proper hechtgrau shade.

Haven't seen that one before. Michael's swirtched to carrying their own (inferior quality) brand of craft paints, but there's another craft store in Ithaca that still caries Delta CC; I'll have to check it out the next time we're up there!